A Fashionable Disaster
by mythweaver1
Summary: FFIV. Post-TAY. Izayoi finds herself in need of a new wardrobe. Kain assists. Valentine's Fic-a-thon entry. Unexpectedly...in...love?


**A/N: Yet another contribution to the V-day fic-a-thon. Prompt: meddling friends. Accidentally in love(?). I have no idea, lol. **

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A Fashionable Disaster

"This looks like a sack," Izayoi complained, picking up one dress and letting it fall limply back to the table.

"You've said that of every dress you've picked up," Kain muttered, blending in suspiciously well with the mannequins.

They had entered one of Damcyan's premier clothiers, and Izayoi had yet to be impressed by its offerings. But then, she was still sore about her wardrobe being scattered across the sands somewhere between Kaipo and Damcyan. As soon as she caught up to Gekkou and Tsukinowa, she had elaborate plans to burn all of theirclothing. _Idiots._

Kain, she had also discovered, was not the best person to have along on this particular errand. Though, he had already been headed in the same direction, and what was humiliation without an audience?

Izayoi sighed. "I am looking for sensible," she reminded him. "Sensible, simple, and maneuverable."

Kain idly raised his brows. They had been poring through bolts of fabric for hours. "You're in the wrong shop," he informed her with a straight face. "You should have visited the armorer."

"What armorer?" Izayoi shot back. "We're in _Damcyan,_ where armaments are synonymous with air. I may as well wander around in the nude."

This earned her a lopsided grin from Kain.

"Don't get too excited, Highwind; I only do that in private," she retorted.

"Either wander in the nude or wear leather in the desert sun," he replied, shrugging. "Your choice."

"Hm," she grumbled, picking up another garment and scowling at it. "That doesn't leave many options, does it?"

"I, for one, would get a good laugh out of the former; but my opinion evidently doesn't matter much to you," he chuckled.

She glanced at him sharply. "Pervert."

"Your words," he pointed out, unbothered.

"I think—" she said, changing the subject. "That we should spend some time sorting _you _out," she concluded, gesturing at his ensemble with pursed lips.

Kain's expression at having become the center of attention was decidedly not amused.

"What I'm wearing is perfectly fine," he announced, annoyed. "I'm only here because Rosa didn't seem to think it was."

Izayoi looked him up and down. "I don't see what's wrong with it, either," she admitted with disappointment; finding the combination of boots, dark trousers, and fitted tunic to be perfectly acceptable. Granted, he also looked like he had just returned from a training exercise—but that was _Kain. _What had Rosa been expecting?

"Rosa impressed upon me that this was a celebration we were attending, not a funeral," he remarked.

"What's wrong with black?" Izayoi asked, genuinely puzzled.

He shrugged. "What's wrong with dresses?" he volleyed, pointing to the trail of rejected garments on the tables around them.

Izayoi narrowed her eyes. "Are you whining because you have somewhere else to be?" she asked.

"I'm only here to humor Rosa. You're here out of necessity."

Izayoi made a face. "I'll tell you what's wrong with dresses," she said, brandishing a finger at him. "And it's that one can hardly mind their footwork with all that fabric getting in the way."

"Were you expecting to start a fight?" he asked curiously.

"I expect a fight wherever I go," she retorted. "I attribute it to my magnetic personality."

Kain crossed his arms, regarding her shrewdly. "Cuore sometimes fights in dresses," he mentioned after a moment of thought.

"Cuore also doesn't believe in footwear," Izayoi promptly answered.

Kain considered this before finally conceding the point. "Fair enough," he admitted.

"I mean who _wears _this?" she asked disgustedly, picking up a long floral patterned tunic and holding it up to her shoulders. One of the shop keepers frowned in her direction at the slight.

Kain mouthed an apology to the shop keeper, and glanced reprovingly at Izayoi. "For all of your griping, I'm amazed that you would suffer this many hours of the sport your sex hails as shopping," Kain observed.

She flicked him an exasperated glare. "It is not a sport—it's a war," she declared. "I simply like to know my enemy before I engage."

"In that case, I challenge you to a duel," he said, striding impatiently around a table to a mannequin that showcased a pale blue gown done up with elegant drapes and shapely bustles. In all honesty, he had chosen it at random and with little thought.

Izayoi's brow rose incredulously. "That?" she balked. "You choose _that?" _

He grinned, triumphantly. "Or are you afraid you might enjoy the attention it brings you?" he asked.

Izayoi swiped the gown from his hands. "I accept this challenge," she declared, furiously. "And I raise you one of my own."

"Oh?" Kain asked, interested at this wager.

"A braid," she said, grinning at him wickedly.

He frowned, puzzled. "A what?"

"Your hair," she repeated, nodding to his haphazardly tied back locks.

His puzzlement deepened. "You want to braid my hair?"

Izayoi's expression was smug. "Or are you afraid you might like how pretty you feel?"

Kain narrowed his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line. "Do your worst," he concluded at last, folding his arms.

Izayoi blanched, having not expected him to agree to her terms.

He waved her off impatiently, and she scowled as she deftly turned on her heel and stormed behind the fitting screen to honor her end of the bargain.

Some time later, they were an odd pair exiting Damcyan's premier clothier. She, the scowling kunoichi in the uncharacteristically flattering gown, and he—the grinning knight beside her with a slightly ridiculous hair style.

Kain was grinning because he knew something Izayoi had overlooked—braids could easily be undone. _She'd _be stuck in her get-up for the rest of the weekend, at least.

It was a thought that had him grinning the whole way back to the castle—right up until she tripped him.

~Fin~

**A/N: Once again, I have no idea what to say about this one. I'm not quite ready to get to the romantic phase of this couple...it's far too fun having them pick on each other, lol. Needless to say, The Eblan Four have shenanigans in mind...and Rosa may have inadvertently helped things along ;P **

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!**

**~Myth**


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